Distinguishing between stock keeping units using marker based methodology

ABSTRACT

The disclosure includes a system and method for distinguishing between stock keeping units of similar appearance that vary in size. An image recognition application receives an image depicting a plurality of items, the image including a reference marker with a known physical dimension. The image recognition application performs image recognition to identify an item in the image and a region of interest for the identified image. The image recognition application further determines a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using the dimension of a region of interest of the reference marker and the known physical dimension of the reference marker. Finally, the image recognition application determines a stock keeping unit identifier of the identified item in the image based on the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and a dimension of the region of interest of the identified item.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 14/582,036, filed Dec. 23, 2014, titled “Distinguishing Between Stock Keeping Units Using Marker Based Methodology,” which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The specification generally relates to identifying and distinguishing between products in an image that vary in size but have a similar product packaging. In particular, the specification relates to a system and method for determining a size of each identified product in the image based on a marker that is used as a reference in the image.

2. Description of the Background Art

A planogram is a visual representation of products in a retail environment. For example, a planogram may describe where in the retail environment and in what quantity products should be located. Such planograms are known to be effective tools for increasing sales, managing inventory and otherwise ensuring that the desired quantity and sizes of an item are placed to optimize profits or other parameters. However, presentation and maintenance of adequate levels of stock on shelves, racks and displays stands is a labor-intensive effort, thereby making enforcement of planograms difficult. While the location and quantity of products in retail stores can be manually tracked by a user, attempts are being made to automatically recognize the products.

Previous attempts at recognizing products have deficiencies. For example, existing image recognition techniques fail to distinguish between objects that are similar in appearance but vary in size.

SUMMARY

The techniques introduced herein overcome the deficiencies and limitations of the prior art, at least in part, with a system and method for distinguishing between stock keeping units of similar appearance that vary in size. In one embodiment, the system includes an image recognition application. The image recognition application is configured to receive an image of a plurality of items and to identify each item in the image. The image recognition application is further configured to generate a region of interest for each identified item in the image and to determine a pixel dimension of the region of interest for each identified item. The image recognition application is further configured to determine whether one of the identified items in the image is a reference marker with a stored physical dimension and to determine a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using the pixel dimension of the region of interest for the reference marker and the stored physical dimension associated with the reference marker. The image recognition application is further configured to determine a stock keeping unit identifier of each identified item in the image based on the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and the pixel dimension of the region of interest for each identified item. The image of the plurality of items, for example, can include products of different sizes in similar packaging stocked on a shelf of a retail store.

Other aspects include corresponding methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products for these and other innovative aspects.

The features and advantages described herein are not all-inclusive and many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the figures and description. Moreover, it should be noted that the language used in the specification has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes and not to limit the scope of the techniques described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The techniques introduced herein are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals are used to refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system for distinguishing between stock keeping units of similar appearance that vary in size.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a computing device including an image recognition application.

FIG. 3 is a graphical representation of one embodiment of processing an image of a plurality of products including a reference marker for image recognition.

FIG. 4 is a graphical representation of another embodiment of processing an image of a plurality of products including a reference marker for image recognition.

FIG. 5 is a graphical representation of an example stock keeping unit (SKU) table for mapping a plurality of product attributes to each product identifier.

FIG. 6 is a graphical representation of one embodiment of an example pixel dimension table listing pixel dimensions of identified products in the image.

FIG. 7 is a graphical representation of one embodiment of an example physical dimension table listing physical dimensions of identified products in the image.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of storing a reference marker.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of determining a stock keeping unit identifier of each identified product in the image based on a marker that is used as a reference in the image.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a system 100 for distinguishing between stock keeping units of similar appearance that vary in size. The illustrated system 100 may have client devices 115 a . . . 115 n that can be accessed by users and a recognition server 101. In FIG. 1 and the remaining figures, a letter after a reference number, e.g., “115 a,” represents a reference to the element having that particular reference number. A reference number in the text without a following letter, e.g., “115,” represents a general reference to instances of the element bearing that reference number. In the illustrated embodiment, these entities of the system 100 are communicatively coupled via a network 105.

The network 105 can be a conventional type, wired or wireless, and may have numerous different configurations including a star configuration, token ring configuration or other configurations. Furthermore, the network 105 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., the Internet), and/or other interconnected data paths across which multiple devices may communicate. In some embodiments, the network 105 may be a peer-to-peer network. The network 105 may also be coupled to or include portions of a telecommunications network for sending data in a variety of different communication protocols. In some embodiments, the network 105 may include Bluetooth communication networks or a cellular communications network for sending and receiving data including via short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), direct data connection, WAP, email, etc. Although FIG. 1 illustrates one network 105 coupled to the client devices 115 and the recognition server 101, in practice one or more networks 105 can be connected to these entities.

In one embodiment, the system 100 includes a recognition server 101 coupled to the network 105. In some embodiments, the recognition server 101 may be either a hardware server, a software server, or a combination of software and hardware. The recognition server 101 may be, or may be implemented by, a computing device including a processor, a memory, applications, a database, and network communication capabilities. In the example of FIG. 1, the components of the recognition server 101 are configured to implement an image recognition application 103 a described in more detail below. In one embodiment, the recognition server 101 provides services to a consumer packaged goods firm for identifying products on shelves, racks, or displays. While the examples herein describe recognition of products in an image of shelves, such as a retail display, it should be understood that the image may include any arrangement of organized objects. For example, the image may be of a warehouse, stockroom, store room, cabinet, etc. Similarly, the objects, in addition to retail products, may be tools, parts used in manufacturing, construction or maintenance, medicines, first aid supplies, emergency or safety equipment, etc.

In some embodiments, the recognition server 101 sends and receives data to and from other entities of the system 100 via the network 105. For example, the recognition server 101 sends and receives data including images of products to and from the client device 115. The images of products received by the recognition server 101 can include an image captured by the client device 115, an image copied from a website or an email, or an image from any other source. Although only a single recognition server 101 is shown in FIG. 1, it should be understood that there may be any number of recognition servers 101 or a server cluster. The recognition server 101 also includes a data storage 243, which is described below in more detail with reference to FIG. 2.

The client device 115 may be a computing device that includes a memory, a processor and a camera, for example a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer, a mobile telephone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile email device, a webcam, a user wearable computing device or any other electronic device capable of accessing a network 105. The client device 115 provides general graphics and multimedia processing for any type of application. The client device 115 includes a display for viewing information provided by the recognition server 101. While FIG. 1 illustrates two client devices 115 a and 115 n, the disclosure applies to a system architecture having one or more client devices 115.

The client device 115 is adapted to send and receive data to and from the recognition server 101. For example, the client device 115 sends a query image to the recognition server 101 and the recognition server 101 provides data in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format about one or more objects recognized in the query image to the client device 115.

The image recognition application 103 may include software and/or logic to provide the functionality for receiving query images and identifying multiple stock keeping units (SKUs) varying in size in the query images. In some embodiments, the image recognition application 103 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware, such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the image recognition application 103 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software. In other embodiments, the image recognition application 103 may be stored and executed on a combination of the client devices 115 and the recognition server 101, or by any one of the client devices 115 or recognition server 101.

In some embodiments, the image recognition application 103 b acts as a thin-client application with some functionality executed on the client device 115 and additional functionality executed on the recognition server 101 by image recognition application 103 a. For example, the image recognition application 103 b on the client device 115 could include software and/or logic for capturing the image, transmitting the image to the recognition server 101, and displaying image recognition results. A thin-client application 103 b may include further functionality described herein with reference to image recognition application 103, such as processing the image and performing feature identification.

In some embodiments, the image recognition application 103 receives an image depicting a plurality of items. For example, the image may be of a shelf stocking breakfast cereal boxes in a retail supermarket. The image recognition application 103 identifies each item in the image and generates a region of interest for each identified item. The image recognition application 103 determines a pixel dimension of the region of interest for each identified item in the image. For example, in various embodiments, the pixel dimension of the region of interest may be a height, a width, an area, a diagonal length, etc. The image recognition application 103 determines whether one of the identified items is a reference marker. For example, an employee identification card whose physical dimensions are known. The image recognition application 103 determines a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using the pixel dimension and a stored physical dimension of the reference marker. The pixel-to-physical dimension ratio is a relationship between the pixel dimension of a region of interest associated with an identified reference marker in the received image and its actual physical dimension. The image recognition application 103 determines a size of each identified item in the image based on the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and the pixel dimension of the region of interest for each identified item. The operation of the image recognition application 103 and the functions listed above are described below in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 3-10.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a computing device 200 including an image recognition application 103. The computing device 200 may also include a processor 235, a memory 237, a communication unit 241, and data storage 243 according to some examples. The components of the computing device 200 are communicatively coupled by a bus 220. The bus 220 may represent one or more buses including an industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, a universal serial bus (USB), or some other bus known in the art to provide similar functionality. In some embodiments, the computing device 200 may be a client device 115, a recognition server 101, or a combination of a client device 115 and a recognition server 101.

The processor 235 may execute software instructions by performing various input/output, logical, and/or mathematical operations. The processor 235 may have various computing architectures to process data signals including, for example, a complex instruction set computer (CISC) architecture, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, and/or an architecture implementing a combination of instruction sets. The processor 235 may be physical and/or virtual, and may include a single processing unit or a plurality of processing units and/or cores. In some implementations, the processor 235 may be capable of generating and providing electronic display signals to a display device, supporting the display of images, capturing and transmitting images, performing complex tasks including various types of feature extraction and sampling, etc. In some implementations, the processor 235 may be coupled to the memory 237 via the bus 220 to access data and instructions therefrom and store data therein. The bus 220 may couple the processor 235 to the other components of the computing device 200 including, for example, the memory 237, the communication unit 241, the image recognition application 103, and the data storage 243. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that other processors, operating systems, sensors, displays and physical configurations are possible.

The memory 237 may store and provide access to data for the other components of the computing device 200. The memory may be included in a single computing device or distributed among a plurality of computing devices as discussed elsewhere herein. In some implementations, the memory 237 may store instructions and/or data that may be executed by the processor 235. The instructions and/or data may include code for performing the techniques described herein. For example, in one embodiment, the memory 237 may store the image recognition application 103. The memory 237 is also capable of storing other instructions and data, including, for example, an operating system, hardware drivers, other software applications, databases, etc. The memory 237 may be coupled to the bus 220 for communication with the processor 235 and the other components of the computing device 200.

The memory 237 may include one or more non-transitory computer-usable (e.g., readable, writeable) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, an embedded memory device, a discrete memory device (e.g., a PROM, FPROM, ROM), a hard disk drive, an optical disk drive (CD, DVD, Blu-ray™, etc.) mediums, which can be any tangible apparatus or device that can contain, store, communicate, or transport instructions, data, computer programs, software, code, routines, etc., for processing by or in connection with the processor 235. In some implementations, the memory 237 may include one or more of volatile memory and non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 237 may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, an embedded memory device, a discrete memory device (e.g., a PROM, FPROM, ROM), a hard disk drive, an optical disk drive (CD, DVD, Blu-ray™, etc.). It should be understood that the memory 237 may be a single device or may include multiple types of devices and configurations.

The communication unit 241 is hardware for receiving and transmitting data by linking the processor 235 to the network 105 and other processing systems. The communication unit 241 receives data such as requests from the client device 115 and transmits the requests to the controller 201, for example a request to process an image including a plurality of products. The communication unit 241 also transmits information including recognition results to the client device 115 for display, for example, in response to a query image. The communication unit 241 is coupled to the bus 220. In one embodiment, the communication unit 241 may include a port for direct physical connection to the client device 115 or to another communication channel. For example, the communication unit 241 may include an RJ45 port or similar port for wired communication with the client device 115. In another embodiment, the communication unit 241 may include a wireless transceiver (not shown) for exchanging data with the client device 115 or any other communication channel using one or more wireless communication methods, such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, Bluetooth® or another suitable wireless communication method.

In yet another embodiment, the communication unit 241 may include a cellular communications transceiver for sending and receiving data over a cellular communications network such as via short messaging service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), direct data connection, WAP, e-mail or another suitable type of electronic communication. In still another embodiment, the communication unit 241 may include a wired port and a wireless transceiver. The communication unit 241 also provides other conventional connections to the network 105 for distribution of files and/or media objects using standard network protocols such as TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS and SMTP as will be understood to those skilled in the art.

The data storage 243 is a non-transitory memory that stores data for providing the functionality described herein. The data storage 243 may be a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, flash memory or some other memory devices. In some embodiments, the data storage 243 also may include a non-volatile memory or similar permanent storage device and media including a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, a CD-ROM device, a DVD-ROM device, a DVD-RAM device, a DVD-RW device, a flash memory device, or some other mass storage device for storing information on a more permanent basis.

In the illustrated embodiment, the data storage 243 is communicatively coupled to the bus 220. The data storage 243 stores data for analyzing a received image and results of the analysis and other functionality as described herein. For example, the data storage 243 may store a stock keeping unit (SKU) table that maps a plurality of product attributes to a product identifier. The data storage 243 may similarly store a product feature table that associates features of a product to a product identifier to support feature based query results retrieval. In the product feature and SKU tables, the data storage 243 may store features of a reference marker and physical dimensions of the reference marker, respectively. Additionally, the data storage 243 may store identified products in the received image, the corresponding regions of interest and the pixel dimensions of the regions of interest. The data storage 243 may also store the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio as described herein. The data stored in the data storage 243 is described below in more detail.

In some embodiments, the image recognition application 103 may include a controller 201, an indexer 203, an image processor 205, a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207, a size engine 209 and a user interface engine 211. The components of the image recognition application 103 are communicatively coupled via the bus 220.

The controller 201 may include software and/or logic to control the operation of the other components of the image recognition application 103. The controller 201 controls the other components of the image recognition application 103 to perform the methods described below with reference to FIGS. 8-10. The controller 201 may also include software and/or logic to provide the functionality for handling communications between the image recognition application 103 and other components of the computing device 200 as well as between the components of the image recognition application 103. In some embodiments, the controller 201 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the controller 201 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software executable by processor 235. In some embodiments, the controller 201 is a set of instructions executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the controller 201 is stored in the memory 237 and is accessible and executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the controller 201 is adapted for cooperation and communication with the processor 235, the memory 237 and other components of the image recognition application 103 via the bus 220.

In some embodiments, the controller 201 sends and receives data, via the communication unit 241, to and from one or more of a client device 115 and a recognition server 101. For example, the controller 201 receives, via the communication unit 241, an image from a client device 115 operated by a user and sends the image to the image processor 205. In another example, the controller 201 receives data for providing a graphical user interface to a user from the user interface engine 211 and sends the data to a client device 115, causing the client device 115 to present the user interface to the user.

In some embodiments, the controller 201 receives data from other components of the image recognition application 103 and stores the data in the data storage 243. For example, the controller 201 receives data including a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio from the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 and stores the data in the data storage 243. In other embodiments, the controller 201 retrieves data from the data storage 243 and sends the data to other components of the image recognition application 103. For example, the controller 201 retrieves data including the SKU table data from the data storage 243 and sends the retrieved data to the size engine 209.

The indexer 203 may include software and/or logic to provide the functionality for storing images of products and markers in a database table for image recognition. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the indexer 203 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software executable by processor 235. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 is a set of instructions executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the indexer 203 is stored in the memory 237 and is accessible and executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the indexer 203 is adapted for cooperation and communication with the processor 235, the memory 237 and other components of the image recognition application 103 via the bus 220.

In some embodiments, the indexer 203 may receive an image of a packaged product as a base image. For example, an image of a packaged product may include a cylindrical soda bottle, a rectangular breakfast cereal box, a rectangular tea box, a circular tray of sandwich cookies, etc. In some embodiments, the packaged product may have a plurality of base images associated with it. For example, the indexer 203 may receive images of the top, bottom, front, back, and sides of the packaged product as base images of the packaged product for storing in the data storage 243. The indexer 203 extracts a set of features and stores the set of features identified for the base image for image recognition. The set of features stored for image recognition can be robust to variations in scale, rotation, ambient lighting, image acquisition parameters, etc. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 maps the base image to a set of values such as, product name, product identifier, company planogram, delivery schedule, employee who stocks the product on store shelves, number of units on stock, etc. The mapping may be stored on the data storage 243 in an acceptable file format, for example an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 includes the set of features identified for each product and a relative location to a point in the base image (e.g., the location of one identified feature) where each feature occurs. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 organizes the indices to store the mappings in the data storage 243 to support a feature-based query search and result retrieval. The results of the feature-based query may be presented in a suitable file format, for example a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file format.

In some embodiments, the indexer 203 receives a product description including physical dimensions for stock keeping unit from a consumer packaged goods (CPG) company. A stock keeping unit (SKU) is a distinct item, such as a product offered for sale. The stock keeping unit includes all attributes that makes the item distinguishable as a distinct product from all other items. For example, the attributes include manufacturer, size, color, packaging, a product description, material, etc. The stock keeping unit may also refer to a unique identifier that refers to the particular product or service in inventory. In some embodiments, the stock keeping units may vary in size while having a packaged cover that is visually similar in appearance. For example, breakfast cereal boxes of a particular brand “ABC” can be sold in more than one package size in supermarkets to suit different consumer needs. However, while being visually similar in appearance, each package size is a distinct stock keeping unit. The product description may be in a computer readable form, for example in a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format for indexing.

Using the product descriptions, or other information input by a user, the indexer 203 generates a SKU table for a plurality of the stock keeping units having a packaged cover that is visually similar in appearance but varying in size. The SKU table maps an identity of a particular product to a plurality of product attributes. Product attributes may include, for example, product name, stock keeping unit identifier, width, height, depth, area, diagonal length, product size, manufacturer brand, model number, price, product/item image, or the like. The indexer 203 stores the SKU table in the data storage 243. For example, as shown in the example of FIG. 5, a SKU table may include entries for “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes such as, a first entry for a one kilogram size of “ABC” breakfast cereal box correspondingly mapped to a height of 225 mm, a width of 180 mm, a SKU identifier “X123,” etc., a second entry for a 500 gram size of “ABC” breakfast cereal box correspondingly mapped to a height of 150 mm, a width of 120 mm, a SKU identifier “Y123,” etc., and a third entry for a 250 gram size of “ABC” breakfast cereal box correspondingly mapped to a height of 100 mm, a width of 80 mm, a SKU identifier “Z123,” etc. Although not shown, it will be understood that the SKU table shown in the example of FIG. 5 may include separate entries for other products such as, tea packets, cookies, soda, etc. For example, the SKU table may include entries for “XYZ” tea packets such as, a fourth entry for a 900 gram size of “XYZ” tea packet correspondingly mapped to a height of 127 mm, a width of 76 mm, a SKU identifier “A456,” etc. In other embodiments, the indexer 203 stores the dimensions of the products in the SKU table in other system of measurements such as, inches, feet, centimeters, meters, etc. and the size of the products in other systems of measurements such as, liters, gallons, ounces, pounds, kilograms, fluid ounces, etc.

In some embodiments, the indexer 203 may also receive a description of one or more reference markers, including physical dimensions, to store in the SKU table along with the descriptions of products. In one embodiment, the SKU table includes an entry for each indexed item that indicates whether the indexed item is a reference marker. For example, as shown below, with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, the ID marker 303 and/or the tea pack 403 may be stored in the SKU table with an indication that the item is a reference marker. In some embodiments, a user may measure the physical dimensions of the reference marker and provide the physical dimensions to the indexer 203 to be stored in the database (e.g., in the SKU table or in a separate reference marker table). The reference marker may be pre-determined or designed for use in differentiating between products of varying size that have a similar appearance. For example, the reference marker can be an employee identification card, a quick response (QR) label affixed to the shelf in the retail store, a shelf label identifying the products on display on the shelf in the retail store, a product or object with a known size, or the like. The dimensions of the above example items may be fixed by the consumer packaged goods company and/or the retail store and may be uniform across retail locations to make them reusable as a reference marker on multiple occasions.

In some embodiments, the reference marker can be dynamically generated using any item whose dimensions are known or can be measured. For example, the items available to a user that can be turned into a reference marker include items such as, a driver's license, a credit card, a booklet, a clipboard, a product on the shelf, etc. To generate the reference marker, in some embodiments, the indexer 203 instructs the user interface engine 211 to generate a graphical user interface that depicts a box to frame the item for image capture and to store the image in the SKU table as a reference marker. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 determines a background of the received image that is unwanted and crops the background region of the received image to accentuate the region of interest (i.e., the item to be stored as a reference marker). For example, the indexer 203 receives an image of a tea box on a white background to turn into a reference marker. The indexer 203 removes the white background while preserving the image of the tea box. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 receives input from the user including the dimensions of the item to serve as the reference marker. The indexer 203 stores the image of the reference marker and its physical dimensions in the data storage 243 alongside base images of product SKUs as described above.

The image processor 205 may include software and/or logic to provide the functionality for receiving and processing images of stock keeping units on a shelf in retail stores. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the image processor 205 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software executable by the processor 235. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 is a set of instructions executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the image processor 205 is stored in the memory 237 and is accessible and executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the image processor 205 is adapted for cooperation and communication with the processor 235, the memory 237 and other components of the image recognition application 103 via the bus 220.

In some embodiments, the image processor 205 receives an image for recognition from a user. The image processor 205 may process individual images serially or in parallel. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 may stitch multiple images received from the user into a single query image for processing. The query image may be received for recognition and may include multiple items of interest on a shelf in a retail store. The image may also include a reference marker as an item of interest. For example, before capturing the image, the user may place his or her employee identification card next to the shelf stocking packaged products. The employee identification card serves as a reference marker and is used to determine the size of the packaged products in the query image. The packaged product includes textual and pictorial information printed on its surface that distinguishes it from other items on the shelf. The packaged product may also sit in an arbitrary orientation on the shelf at any given time. For example, a box-like packaged product such as a breakfast cereal box might be positioned with the front, the back, the top, the bottom, or the sides of the breakfast cereal box exposed to the user looking at the shelf. In another example, a cylindrically packaged product such as a chocolate chip cookies package might be positioned rotated on its horizontal axis with the textual and pictorial information printed on its surface partially exposed to the user looking at the shelf. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 determines whether the received image is optimal for recognition and instructs the user interface engine 211 to generate data for instructing the user to retake the image of the shelf if a section of the image has limited information for complete recognition (e.g., packaged products on top shelf is cut off), the image is too blurry, the image has an illumination artifact (e.g., excessive reflection), etc.

In some embodiments, the image processor 205 extracts features from the received image and matches the extracted features to those features stored in the database for recognition. The image processor 205 identifies the products in the received image matching the stored features. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 detects an item in the image, extracts features of the item and matches the extracted features to a stored item identifying a reference marker in the database. The image processor 205 returns the matched items and an associated region of interest (ROI) for each of the matched items in the received image. A region of interest can be of any shape, for example, a circle with a center point and a diameter, a rectangular shape of a width, a height and one or more reference points for the region (e.g., a center point, one or more corner points for the region), etc. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 identifies each region of interest associated with the items of interest in the image in a numbered sequence. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 which is described in more detail below, the image processor 205 may receive an image and identify six “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes and an employee identification card used as a reference marker in the received image. The six “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes in the image may have the same product packaging appearance while varying in content size and scale. In the example above, the image processor 205 may return seven polygon ROIs, each one associated with one of the six “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes or the employee identification card in the received image. In another example, the image processor 205 identifies three soda bottles and a tea pack that can serve as a reference marker in a received image. The three soda bottles may vary in volume size. The image processor 205 returns three polygon ROIs bordering the exposed labeling containing pictorial and textual information on each one of the soda bottles and one polygon ROI bordering the tea pack serving as the reference marker. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 stores all the identified items in the received image and their corresponding region of interests in the data storage 243.

To distinguish between products in the image that vary only in size (e.g., the cereal boxes or soda bottles) the image processor 205 determines pixel dimensions of each identified item in the received image. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 determines the dimensions of the regions of interest associated with the identified products and reference marker in the received image. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the image processor 205 determines the height, in pixels, of stock keeping units such as, breakfast cereal boxes in different sizes identified in the received image of FIG. 4 from the regions of interest. The image processor 205 also determines the height, in pixels, of a tea pack serving as a reference marker in the received image to be 177 pixels. In another example, the image processor 205 determines the height, in pixels, of an employee identification card (included in the SKU table) serving as a reference marker in the received image to be 90 pixels. In other examples, the image processor 205 may determine a width in pixels, an area in pixels, a diagonal length in pixels, etc. of the region of interest. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 sends data including the pixel dimensions of the region of interest associated with each identified item in the received image to the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 and the size engine 209 for use in distinguishing between products in the image that vary only in size.

The pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 may include software and/or logic to provide the functionality for determining a relationship between the pixel dimension of a region of interest associated with an identified reference marker in the received image and the actual physical dimension of the reference marker. In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software executable by processor 235. In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 is a set of instructions executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 is stored in the memory 237 and is accessible and executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 is adapted for cooperation and communication with the processor 235, the memory 237 and other components of the image recognition application 103 via the bus 220.

The pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 receives from the image processor 205 the pixel dimension of the region of interest associated with the identified reference marker in the received image. For example, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 receives a height of 90 pixels for an employee identification card serving as the reference marker in the received image shown in FIG. 3. Additionally, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 retrieves the physical dimensions of the reference marker as stored in the database. For example, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 retrieves height of 50.8 mm for the employee identification card from the data storage 243. The pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 determines a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio (PPR) by dividing the pixel dimension of the identified reference marker by the physical dimension of the identified reference marker. Continuing with the example of the employee identification card, where the height in pixels for the employee identification card is 90 pixels and its physical height is 50.8 mm, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 determines the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using these two parameters to be 1.77. In another example, if the height in pixels for the tea pack serving as the reference marker is 177 pixels and its actual height retrieved from the SKU table is 100 mm, then the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 determines the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using these two parameters to be 1.77.

In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 may determine a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using a dimension (e.g., height, width, etc.), in pixels, of the region of interest for the identified reference marker and a corresponding physical dimension of the reference marker. In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio that is determined using the width, in pixels, may be different from the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio that is determined using the height, in pixels, due to pixel aspect ratio (PAR). The pixel aspect ratio is a mathematical ratio describing how the width of a pixel in an image compares to the height of the pixel. The pixel aspect ratio remains constant for varying sizes of a packaged product in a single image.

In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 stores the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio in the data storage 243. In some embodiments, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 sends the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio to the size engine 209.

The size engine 209 may include software and/or logic to provide the functionality for determining a size of each identified product in the received image. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the size engine 209 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software executable by processor 235. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 is a set of instructions executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the size engine 209 is stored in the memory 237 and is accessible and executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the size engine 209 is adapted for cooperation and communication with the processor 235, the memory 237 and other components of the image recognition application 103 via the bus 220.

To determine the size of products in the received image, the size engine 209 receives the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio from the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 and the pixel dimension of the region of interest of each identified product in the received image from the image processor 205. The size engine 209 determines the size of each identified product in the received image based on the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and the pixel dimension for each identified product in the received image. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 determines an actual physical dimension corresponding to each identified product by dividing the pixel dimension for each identified product by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio. The formula to determine the actual physical dimension of a product can be formally stated as:

${{size}\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu}{physical}\mspace{14mu}{dimension}} = \frac{{Size}\mspace{14mu}{in}\mspace{14mu}{pixels}}{{pixel}\text{-}{to}\text{-}{physical}\mspace{14mu}{dimenstion}\mspace{14mu}{ratio}}$

For example, as shown in FIG. 7 which is described in more detail below, if the height in pixels for a first “ABC” breakfast cereal box (e.g., product number ‘2’ of FIG. 4) identified in the received image is 400 pixels and the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio is determined to be 1.77, then the actual physical height is determined to be 400/1.77=225.9 mm. In another example, if the height in pixels for a second “ABC” breakfast cereal box (e.g., product number ‘3’ of FIG. 4) identified in the received image is 265 pixels and the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio is determined to be 1.77, then the actual physical height is determined to be 265/1.77=149.7 mm. In yet another example, if the height in pixels for a third “ABC” breakfast cereal box (e.g., product number ‘4’ of FIG. 4) identified in the received image is 175 pixels and the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio is determined to be 1.77, then the actual physical height is determined to be 175/1.77=98.9 mm. In other examples, the size engine 209 may determine other actual physical dimensions such as, width, area, diagonal length, etc. for each identified product in the received image based on corresponding pixel-to-physical dimension ratios determined by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207.

In some embodiments, the size engine 209 retrieves the information from the SKU table from the data storage 243. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 uses the physical dimension determined for an identified product in the received image to look up a closest matching physical dimension stored for the identified product in the SKU table. For example, the size engine 209 identifies that a first “ABC” breakfast cereal box with a calculated physical height of 225.9 mm is closest to a height 225 mm associated with a one kilogram “ABC” breakfast cereal box in the SKU table. In another example, the size engine 209 identifies that a second “ABC” breakfast cereal box with a calculated physical height of 149.7 mm is closest to a height 150 mm associated with a 500 gram “ABC” breakfast cereal box in the SKU table. In yet another example, the size engine 209 identifies that a third “ABC” breakfast cereal box with a calculated physical height of 98.9 mm is closest to a height of 100 mm associated with a 250 gram breakfast cereal box in the SKU table. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 may use other physical dimensions such as, width, area, diagonal height, etc. to improve accuracy in distinguishing the identified products varying only in size in the received image.

In some embodiments, the size engine 209 uses the closest matching physical dimension of each identified product to retrieve stock keeping unit information from the SKU table. The size engine 209 determines a SKU identifier for the identified product based on the closest matching physical dimension. For example, using the height of 225 mm associated with a one kilogram “ABC” breakfast cereal box, the size engine 209 retrieves a stock keeping unit identifier “X123” from the SKU table for the one kilogram “ABC” breakfast cereal box.

One of the advantages of using the techniques introduced here to distinguish between products of varying size in an image of a retail shelf is that the plurality of products can be audited by a sales executive more quickly and accurately. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 uses the SKU identifier of each identified product in the image to retrieve planogram information corresponding to that product from the data storage 243. The planogram describes a product's location in an aisle and on a shelf and the quantity of the product to be stocked at that location. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 receives the data including identified items of interest in the image from the image processor 205 and determines the location of each of the identified items of interest using location information associated with the received image. The size engine 209 checks whether the location and position of the product of its size identified in the image are compliant with a planogram received from the consumer packaged goods company or companies producing the products. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 instructs the user interface engine 211 to generate a notification for the user when the planogram compliance is breached. For example, a soft drink company planogram may list that soda “A” of two liter volume should be at eye-level in the beverage aisle and the size engine 209 determines whether the identified soda “A” bottles of two liter volume in the query images sent by the user comply with the planogram.

In some embodiments, the size engine 209 determines whether changes in an item inventory of particular sizes identified in the received image exceed a threshold. If the changes exceed a threshold, the size engine 209 instructs the user interface engine 211 to generate a notification for the user. For example, the size engine 209 can determine whether 250 gram size “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes identified in the image of a product shelf are out of stock or nearly empty based on a planogram and instruct the user interface engine 211 to notify the user to restock the 250 gram size “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 generates statistics associated with the items of various sizes identified in the image. For example, the statistics may provide details that the 250 gram size breakfast cereal boxes sell faster than those of other sizes, etc. In another example, the statistics may provide details that a promotional sale of a tea pack with 20% free tea bags sells faster than other tea packs, etc. In some embodiment, the size engine 209 associates the statistics with the item description in the SKU table stored in the data storage 243.

The user interface engine 211 may include software and/or logic for providing user interfaces to a user. In some embodiments, the user interface engine 211 can be implemented using programmable or specialized hardware including a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In some embodiments, the user interface engine 211 can be implemented using a combination of hardware and software executable by processor 235. In some embodiments, the user interface engine 211 is a set of instructions executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the user interface engine 211 is stored in the memory 237 and is accessible and executable by the processor 235. In some implementations, the user interface engine 211 is adapted for cooperation and communication with the processor 235, the memory 237 and other components of the image recognition application 103 via the bus 220.

In some embodiments, the user interface engine 211 receives instructions from the image processor 205 to generate a graphical interface that instructs the user to capture an image of a retail shelf stocking products. In some embodiments, responsive to a user of a client device 115 capturing the image depicting products, the user interface engine 211 receives information, including product identification, from the image processor 205 and generates a polygon outline to identify the region of interest associated with each identified product. In some embodiments, the user interface engine 211 generates a graphical image for displaying the notification received from the size engine 209. In other embodiments, the user interface engine 211 sends the graphical user interface data to an application (e.g., a browser) in the client device 115 via the communication unit 241 causing the application to display the data in a user interface.

FIG. 3 is a graphical representation 300 of one embodiment of processing an image depicting a plurality of products and a reference marker for image recognition. In some embodiments, the graphical representation 300 can be displayed on a client device 115, for example, a smartphone of the user capturing the image. In one embodiment, the graphical representation 300 may include an image 301 of a shelving unit stocking a plurality of “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes. As depicted in the example of FIG. 3, the image 301 also includes an employee identification card 303 to serve as a reference marker. The employee identification card 303 and its physical dimensions may be stored in a SKU table stored on the data storage 243. In some embodiments, the image 301 is sent to the image processor 205 for image recognition. The graphical representation 300 includes the processed image 305 identifying the items of interest with regions of interest 307 in a numbered sequence. The processed image 305 includes the regions of interest 307 bordering each identified “ABC” breakfast cereal box and the employee identification card 303 identified as the reference marker. The regions of interest 307 provide an estimation for the dimension, in pixels, for each identified item in the processed image 305.

FIG. 4 is a graphical representation 400 of another embodiment of processing an image of a plurality of products including a reference marker for image recognition. In some embodiments, the graphical representation 400 can be displayed on a client device 115, for example, a smartphone of the user capturing the image. In one embodiment, the graphical representation 400 includes an image 401 of a shelving unit stocking a plurality of “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes. The image 401 may also include a “XYZ” tea pack 403 with known physical dimensions to serve as a reference marker. The “XYZ” tea pack 403 and its physical dimensions are stored in the SKU table stored on the data storage 243. In some embodiments, the image 401 is sent to the image processor 205 for image recognition. The graphical representation 400 includes the processed image 405 identifying the items with regions of interest 407 in a numbered sequence. The processed image 405 includes the regions of interest 407 bordering each identified “ABC” breakfast cereal box and the “XYZ” tea pack 403 identified as the reference marker. The regions of interest 407 provide an estimation for the dimension, in pixels, for each identified item in the processed image 405.

FIG. 5 is a graphical representation 500 of one embodiment of an example SKU table for mapping a plurality of attributes of a product to the product identity. Referring to FIG. 5, the graphical representation 500 includes a SKU table 501 mapping the “ABC” breakfast cereal product of different varieties as separate row entries in the SKU table 401. Each separate row entry maps the “ABC” breakfast cereal product to the plurality of the attributes associated with that particular “ABC” breakfast cereal product. The attributes are represented under the columns of the SKU table 501 and may include SKU identifier, product name, height, width, area, diagonal length, size, price, product/item image, etc. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 may update the SKU table 501 with a plurality of row entries to include additional products such as, tea packets, cookies, sodas, etc.

FIG. 6 is a graphical representation 600 of one embodiment of an example pixel dimension table listing pixel dimensions of identified products in the image. Referring to FIG. 6, the graphical representation 600 includes a table 601 listing a height, in pixels, of a region of interest associated with each identified item in the processed image 405 from FIG. 4. For instance, in the example of FIG. 6, the green tea product serving as the reference marker in the example of FIG. 4 is the product number ‘1’ with a height of 177 pixels. In some embodiments, the image processor 205 generates the table 601 listing the height, in pixels. In other examples, the table 601 may include a width, a diagonal length, an area, etc. as additional columns.

FIG. 7 is a graphical representation of one embodiment of an example physical dimension table listing physical dimensions of identified products in the image. Referring to FIG. 7, the graphical representation 700 includes a table 701 that lists physical height for each identified product by dividing the dimension, in pixels, for each identified product by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio. For example, if the height (in pixels) for a first breakfast cereal box identified in the processed image 303 in FIG. 3 is 400 pixels and the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio is determined to be 1.77, then the physical height of the first breakfast cereal box is determined to be 400/1.77=225.9 mm. In some embodiments, the size engine 209 uses the physical height corresponding to each identified product to lookup the SKU table for distinguishing the sizes of each identified product in the processed image 303. For example, the size engine 209 identifies that the first “ABC” breakfast cereal box with a calculated physical height of 225.9 mm matches closely to a physical height of 225 mm stored for the “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes in the SKU table. The matched physical height of 225 mm in turn maps to a one kilogram “ABC” breakfast cereal box in the SKU table.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 800 for storing a reference marker. As described above, the image recognition application 103 may include an indexer 203. At 802, the indexer 203 receives an image of an item. In some embodiments, the indexer 203 uses the item to dynamically generate a reference marker. For example, the image of the item can be that of a driver's license, a credit card, a booklet, a clipboard, a product on a shelf, etc. At 804, the indexer 203 crops the background region in the image of the item. For example, the image may have a white background that contains no significant information and the indexer 203 removes the white background while preserving the image of the item. At 806, the indexer 203 receives at least one physical dimension of the item as input. For example, the user who captured the image may input the dimensions of a tea pack to be used as a reference marker. The user inputs the dimensions of the tea pack as being of a height of 100 mm and a width of 36 mm on a graphical user interface on the client device 115 when the image of the tea pack is captured to generate the reference marker. At 808, the indexer 203 stores the image of the item as a reference marker along with the at least one physical dimension. For example, the indexer 203 may store the image in the SKU table or a separate reference marker table. In some embodiments, the auditor can reuse the item stored as a reference marker on multiple occasions by placing the item beside the shelf of stock keeping units and capturing an image of the shelf for determining sizes of the stock keeping units.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 900 for determining a stock keeping unit identifier of each identified product in the image using a stored marker that is used as a reference in the image. As described above, the image recognition application 103 may include an image processor 205, a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207, and a size engine 209. At 902, the image processor 205 receives an image of a plurality of items. The plurality of items may include a reference marker as described above. For example, the image can be an image of a plurality of packaged products on a shelf (e.g., a square coffee box, a rectangular cereal box, a cylindrical package of chocolate chip cookies, etc.) in a retail store. At 904, the image processor 205 identifies each item in the image. For example, the image processor 205 extracts features from the image including the plurality of items and matches the extracted features to features stored in a database for recognition. At 906, the image processor 205 generates a region of interest for each identified item in the image. At 908, the image processor 205 determines a pixel dimension of the region of interest for each identified item. For example, the image processor 205 identifies six “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes and one reference marker in an image and returns seven rectangular polygon ROIs bordering each one of the identified items, as depicted in the example of FIGS. 3 and 4. In one embodiment, the image processor 205 determines the height in pixels of the “ABC” breakfast cereal boxes and the reference marker identified in the image using the ROI for each identified item. At 910, the image processor 205 determines whether one or more of the identified items in the image is a reference marker with a physical dimension that is stored. A reference marker, such as an employee identification card or a product of a known physical size, may be placed beside the packaged products before the user captures the image of the shelf. The physical dimensions of the employee identification card can be stored in the data storage 243.

At 912, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 retrieves the physical dimension for the reference marker from a SKU table responsive to one of the identified items in the image being the reference marker. For example, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 retrieves the height (e.g., 50.8 mm) of the employee identification card from the data storage 243. At 914, the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 determines a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using the pixel dimension of the region of interest for the reference marker and the physical dimension for the reference marker. For example, if the height in pixels of the employee identification card is 90 pixels, then the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine 207 divides the pixel dimension (i.e., 90 pixels) by the physical height (i.e., 50.8 mm) of the employee identification card and determines the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio to be 1.77. The pixel-to-physical dimension ratio that is determined using the reference marker can be used to identify the physical dimensions of identified items in the image.

At 916, the size engine 209 determines a physical dimension for each identified item using the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and the pixel dimension of the region of interest for each identified item. The size engine 209 determines a physical dimension corresponding to each identified product by dividing the pixel dimension for each identified product by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio. For example, if the height in pixels for a breakfast cereal box identified in the received image is 400 pixels and the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio is determined to be 1.77, then the size engine 209 determines the physical height to be 400/1.77=225.9 mm. At 918, the size engine 209 determines a SKU identifier of each identified item by using the physical dimension for each identified item to lookup the SKU table. For example, the size engine 209 identifies that the “ABC” breakfast cereal box with a calculated physical height of 225.9 mm is closest to a height 225 mm associated with a one kilogram “ABC” breakfast cereal box in the SKU table and retrieves the SKU identifier for the one kilogram “ABC” breakfast cereal box to be “X123.”. In various embodiments, the physical dimensions of the product mapped into the SKU table could include one or more of a height, a width, an area, a diagonal length, etc.

A system and method for identifying and distinguishing between products of similar appearance that vary in size has been described. In the above description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the techniques introduced above. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the techniques can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the description and for ease of understanding. For example, the techniques are described in one embodiment above primarily with reference to software and particular hardware. However, the present invention applies to any type of computing system that can receive data and commands, and present information as part of any peripheral devices providing services.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions described above are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are, in some circumstances, used by those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”, “calculating”, “determining”, “displaying”, or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

The techniques also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memories including USB keys with non-volatile memory or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupled to a computer system bus.

Some embodiments can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. One embodiment is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.

Furthermore, some embodiments can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code can include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution.

Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.

Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.

Finally, the algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the techniques are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the various embodiments as described herein.

The foregoing description of the embodiments has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the specification to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the embodiments be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims of this application. As will be understood by those familiar with the art, the examples may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Likewise, the particular naming and division of the modules, routines, features, attributes, methodologies and other aspects are not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms that implement the description or its features may have different names, divisions and/or formats. Furthermore, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art, the modules, routines, features, attributes, methodologies and other aspects of the specification can be implemented as software, hardware, firmware or any combination of the three. Also, wherever a component, an example of which is a module, of the specification is implemented as software, the component can be implemented as a standalone program, as part of a larger program, as a plurality of separate programs, as a statically or dynamically linked library, as a kernel loadable module, as a device driver, and/or in every and any other way known now or in the future to those of ordinary skill in the art of computer programming. Additionally, the specification is in no way limited to embodiment in any specific programming language, or for any specific operating system or environment. Accordingly, the disclosure is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the specification, which is set forth in the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a first image including a plurality of items of varying sizes, the plurality of items having a similar appearance and including a reference marker with a known physical dimension; performing image recognition to identify an item in the first image and a region of interest of the identified item in the first image; determining a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using a first pixel dimension of a region of interest of the reference marker and the known physical dimension of the reference marker; determining a physical dimension of the identified item using the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and a second pixel dimension of the region of interest of the identified item; and determining a stock keeping unit identifier distinguishing the identified item of a first size from the plurality of items of varying sizes by matching the physical dimension of the identified item with a reference physical dimension for the identified item stored in a stock keeping unit table.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio further comprises: retrieving the known physical dimension of the reference marker; and determining the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio by dividing the first pixel dimension of the region of interest of the reference marker by the known physical dimension of the reference marker.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the stock keeping unit identifier distinguishing the identified item of the first size from the plurality of items of varying sizes further comprises: determining the physical dimension of the identified item by dividing the second pixel dimension of the region of interest of the identified item by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio; and determining the stock keeping unit identifier of the identified item by using the physical dimension of the identified item to look up the stock keeping unit identifier in the stock keeping unit table.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second image of the reference marker; cropping a background region in the second image of the reference marker; receiving a physical dimension of the reference marker; and storing the second image of the reference marker with the physical dimension as the known physical dimension.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference marker is one from a group of an employee identification card, a shelf label, and a Quick Response (QR) code label.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical dimension of the identified item is one from a group of: a height, a width, an area, and a diagonal length.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of the plurality of items in the first image vary only in size.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio describes a relationship between the first pixel dimension of the reference marker in the first image and the known physical dimension of the reference marker.
 9. A system comprising; an image processor configured to: receive a first image including a plurality of items of varying sizes, the plurality of items having a similar appearance and including a reference marker with a known physical dimension; and perform image recognition to identify an item in the first image and a region of interest of the identified item in the first image; a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine coupled to the image processor and configured to determine a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using a first pixel dimension of a region of interest of the reference marker and the known physical dimension of the reference marker; and a size engine coupled to the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine and configured to determine a physical dimension of the identified item using the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and a second pixel dimension of the region of interest of the identified item and to determine a stock keeping unit identifier distinguishing the identified item of a first size from the plurality of items of varying sizes by matching the physical dimension of the identified item with a reference physical dimension for the identified item stored in a stock keeping unit table.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio engine, to determine the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio, is further configured to: retrieve the known physical dimension of the reference marker; and determine the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio by dividing the first pixel dimension of the region of interest of the reference marker by the known physical dimension of the reference marker.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the size engine, to determine the stock keeping unit identifier distinguishing the identified item of the first size from the plurality of items of varying sizes, is further configured to: determine the physical dimension of the identified item by dividing the second pixel dimension of the region of interest of the identified item by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio; and determine the stock keeping unit identifier of the identified item by using the physical dimension of the identified item to look up the stock keeping unit identifier in the stock keeping unit table.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the size engine is further configured to: receive a second image of the reference marker; crop a background region in the second image of the reference marker; receive a physical dimension of the reference marker; and store the second image of the reference marker with the physical dimension as the known physical dimension.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein the reference marker is one from a group of an employee identification card, a shelf label, and a Quick Response (QR) code label.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the physical dimension of the identified item is one from a group of: a height, a width, an area, and a diagonal length.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein a portion of the plurality of items in the first image vary only in size.
 16. The system of claim 9, wherein the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio describes a relationship between the first pixel dimension of the reference marker in the first image and the known physical dimension of the reference marker.
 17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program, when executed, causes a computer to perform operations comprising: receiving an image including a plurality of items of varying sizes, the plurality of items having a similar appearance and including a reference marker with a known physical dimension; performing image recognition to identify an item in the image and a region of interest of the identified item in the image; determining a pixel-to-physical dimension ratio using a first pixel dimension of a region of interest of the reference marker and the known physical dimension of the reference marker; determining a physical dimension of the identified item using the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio and a second pixel dimension of the region of interest of the identified item; and determining a stock keeping unit identifier distinguishing the identified item of a first size from the plurality of items of varying sizes by matching the physical dimension of the identified item with a reference physical dimension for the identified item stored in a stock keeping unit table.
 18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein determining the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio further comprises: retrieving the known physical dimension of the reference marker; and determining the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio by dividing the first pixel dimension of the region of interest of the reference marker by the known physical dimension of the reference marker.
 19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein determining the stock keeping unit identifier distinguishing the identified item of the first size from the plurality of items of varying sizes further comprises: determining the physical dimension of the identified item by dividing the second pixel dimension of the region of interest of the identified item by the pixel-to-physical dimension ratio; and determining the stock keeping unit identifier of the identified item by using the physical dimension of the identified item to look up the stock keeping unit identifier in the stock keeping unit table.
 20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the reference marker is one from a group of an employee identification card, a shelf label, and a Quick Response (QR) code label. 